2 ways to Add Tarot Readings to your Journaling

Do you already have a journaling practice? Or wish you reached more instinctively for you notebook on the daily? 

How about tarot readings? Is reading tarot for yourself something that freaks you out a little bit? Because tarot and journaling together create this incredible two-birds-one-stone situation. Where the tarot cards give you a reason to write and the journaling creates a self-guided teaching of the cards!

If tarot still makes you a little nervous, just remember: Anyone can use tarot cards with any level of knowledge. I’ve always loved the analogy that the cards are a mirror; they reflect back at you what you cannot see unaided. Adding journaling into your readings will only make these reflections more clear and more solid. Through journaling, you will be able to capture these reflections, magnify them and work through them.

So let's get into the actual how-to's of this whole thing! There are two ways to approach this. I'll start with the simplest first...

1. Single card pulls:

Start by settling into a comfortable space with everything you need: notebook, card, coffee, maybe some music. Get comfy, and begin shuffling your tarot cards. Shuffle and think about what it is you're planning on writing about. Whether that be a question, a thought, a day. Everything is fair game. Now pull just one card. Sit with it, examine it. What are the immediate thoughts that come to you?

Now start writing. Turn to your journal and free-write. Use the card to prompt you. It will kick-start your thoughts. Allow it to encourage you to see new perspectives. Write anything and everything that comes to your mind. Try not to pause. It’s not necessary to stop and consider whether your thoughts are worth writing down. It’s all worth writing down. Your intuition is in the immediacy. 

2. Journaling with a Tarot Spread:

Start by settling into that comfortable space with everything you need: notebook, card, coffee, maybe some music. Begin your entry with the date, your question, and indicate the spread you will be using with a quick card diagram.

Shuffle, pull, and lay out your cards. Reflect and absorb the cards in front
of you. Sit with the cards as long as you need to.

Turn to your journal and free-write about each card individually.

The cards are prompts, kick-starting your thoughts on your reading. Allow them to encourage you to see new perspectives. Write anything and everything that comes to your mind. Again, Try not to pause. It’s not necessary. Everything is worth writing down.

Now, write about how the cards could form a bigger picture as a group. Do you see a story unfolding through them, or similarities between the cards?